Clover Go Reviews
Clover Go has quickly become one of the most popular pieces of point-of-sale hardware on the market today. This inexpensive piece of hardware comes with a high-quality web dashboard, a free mobile processing app, and a number of restaurant-specific features.
But is Clover Go the best credit card processing hardware for your business?
We'll explain the ins and outs of Clover Go, allowing you to determine if it meshes with all your business needs, or if you'd be better off looking elsewhere.
Pricing
The pricing for Clover Go includes the price for the chosen Clover software plan and the Clover device.
For small business owners, Clover devices are pretty affordable if you purchase them through Clover directly, which we highly recommend.
The Clover go mobile card reader goes for $49 flat if you purchase it from the Clover website.
However, because Clover sells all of its hardware through different merchants, the prices that you pay can vary.
For example, there are merchants out there that will provide a Clover Go system for free if you sign up for their merchant account. However, there are others that charge around $99 for this small device.
If you want to stick with a Clover account, you'll want to go with one of these two:
Payment processing fees are a flat rate of 2.6% + $0.10 for in-person transactions, and keyed-in transaction fees go for a flat rate of 3.5% + $0.10 when you opt for Clover's credit card processing.
If your business isn't processing anymore than $50,000 each year, these plans are solid.
The great thing about Clover, is that users don't have to use Clover's credit card processing service. If you're looking for a POS system without credit card processing, where you can choose a different service provider, Clover allows that freedom.
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Features and Benefits
When you sign up with Clover Go, you'll get a merchant account. This merchant account delivers far more stability than PayPal, Square, or other third-party processors.
Compared to Square, Clover Go's basic set of features is a bit less limited. However, if you upgrade to the Essentials Plan, you get access to several great features.
Let's go through a few of them so you can familiarize yourself.
New Sale Tab
You'll find a quick-pay option in the New Sale Tab, similar to what you would find in other mobile POS systems. All you have to do is select an item from your inventory list or manually enter the price of the item before having customers sign off on their purchase.
Dashboard
You'll find options to view weekly sales data, add employees, update business details, and much more in your Clover Go mobile dashboard. Note that this is separate from your web dashboard, meaning you can make updates and stay in control while on the go.
Card Scanner
While Clover Go comes with a card reader, it also comes with a card scanner just in case your card reader isn't working.
This small device scans the card instead of having you enter the numbers manually.
Item Descriptions
The item descriptions are exactly what you might expect from a basic POS system. With this window, you can view and edit the name, price, tax rate, and category of an item.
Before the recent update, you had to use the Clover dashboard to create items and make updates. Begin able to ring up items, view pricing per unit, and make any changes from Clover directly is pretty handy.
Inventory Management
One of the things that truly sets Clover Go apart is its inventory capabilities. If you've ever used other mobile POS systems, you probably know that you can select multiple items and customize prices on the spot if need be.
The beauty of Clover Go is that it has an inventory management mode, which allows you to view and edit items with ease.
Custom Tax and Tip
With the web dashboard, you can set up custom tip and tax amounts.
Additionally, this Clover POS system also allows you to set a few preset tax rates for items within the Clover Go app. However, to manage the tax rate options, you have to use the dashboard.
These tax tools aren't as robust as other mobile POS system options we've seen, though they're more than enough for most low-volume businesses.
Unlimited Users
One of the things that we were really surprised to find out was that Clover Go gives you the option to create as many user accounts as you need. You can even give each user different levels of permission, allowing some employees to access certain features exclusively.
Discounts
One of the biggest recent updates to the Clover Go app was the ability to add discounts. You can create value-based discounts or percentage-based discounts on the fly.
Do note that Clover does not allow you to make discounts for individual items, only entire orders.
Reporting
You can get some pretty basic reports from the reporting suite on the Clover Go app. Some of the reports include:
Integrations
Clover offers several integrations with the app marketplace, giving you the ability to extend your Clover Go's functionality. For example, you might choose to integrate Quickbooks Online, though note that this integration, among others, require an additional monthly fee.
Complaints and Limitations
Though most of the reviews regarding Clover POS devices are positive, there are a few negative reviews and complaints regarding the Clover Go app and device.
Issues With The Card Reader
We've seen a few complaints regarding the Clover card reader, especially with Android users. There are many users that seem to have problems getting a good connection between their phones and the headphone jack, meaning those users have to key things in manually or get a new reader.
One thing we recommend is to get the Bluetooth reader, which works around the headphone jack completely.
Software Glitches
Users having problems logging in or having trouble with the Clover Go app crashing is not surprising, as this kind of stuff seems to happen with all kinds of POS software.
Just recently, Fiserv updated the Clover Go app and deleted the custom tip feature on accident. They took a week to fix it, leaving users without that feature for far too long in our opinion.
Lack of Advanced Features
Compared to the full-featured Clover POS system, the Clover Go app is very basic. Even compared to other mobile systems like Square, or the Clover Station POS which combine both mobile and full-fledged POS features, you don't get a lot to work with.
The Clover Go app doesn't allow you to manage many settings compared to other Clover POS devices.
Competing Alternatives
Square
Business owners that don't opt for Clover Go often select Square. There are a few things to note if you're caught between the two.
In terms of features, Square and Clover are pretty comparable, however, Clover offers more out-of-the-box software features without additional monthly fees, making it better for those on a serious budget.
Square's hardware is less expensive than Clover's hardware and the flexibility of hardware options from Square makes it a great choice for new business owners.
Lastly, when it comes to credit card processing, you won't have the ability to use your own merchant account with Square. On the other hand, you will be able to use your own merchant account with Clover.
The credit card processing fee from Square is 2.6% + $0.10 for swiped or tapped transactions and 3.5% + $0.10 for keyed-in transactions.
Both of these choices are great solutions for small businesses, though it really comes down to your specific needs.
Head over to Square POS Reviews, How Does Square Work, or Square POS System Cost to learn more.
Final Verdict
Overall, Clover Go is probably the most well-rounded mobile processing option on the market today. One of the biggest draws with this hardware, beyond its ability to accept payments with ease, is that the merchant account is very stable.
However, there are a few things, such as the need to modify via the web dashboard instead of the Clover Go app, which are kind of annoying.
When trying to find your Clover Go pricing, your experience will vary depending on which reseller you purchase from.
The good thing is that if you purchase your device through the Clover website, the company offers pretty upfront pricing.
When all is said and done, Clover is one of the best POS companies, and Clover Go is great for any low to mid-volume business that needs a portable way to process payments. The beauty of the recently re-branded Clover Go is that it acts as a standalone POS, great for just about any new, small business. Plus, the ability to use your own merchant account is very beneficial, especially for businesses that haven't had a good experience using a third-party merchant account from service providers like PayPal, Shopify, or Square.
Higher-volume businesses or countertop businesses might need something a bit bigger, such as a Clover Mini or Clover Station.
If you want to better compare the cost of POS systems, including software, hardware, and monthly fees, make sure to click the button below and use our form to get free price quotes from the top POS providers.
Tyler Connaghan
Contributing Author
